


The Fabulous Fuckery of the Cheating Four

by megastarstrike



Series: Someone I Call Home [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-04-07 00:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14069154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megastarstrike/pseuds/megastarstrike
Summary: Eighteen years of life, four years of high school, and two years together. Rantarou, Tsumugi, Kokichi, and Miu may be different people, but they can survive these years with each other by their sides. But with these different personalities comes silliness and shenanigans they really should have seen coming beforehand.------The stories connecting the events of The Cheating Ring.





	1. Fire Alarms

**Author's Note:**

> this is essentially going to be a series of ficlets based around the interactions between the 4 that were never shown in The Cheating Ring. like context behind noodle incidents and just other random silliness that goes on in their lives.

Rantarou liked to think he was a patient person. He had to deal with twelve sisters on a daily basis, after all. Adding three irresponsible friends to that mix had been difficult, but his hard work had definitely been worth it. Yet sometimes, he questioned just how much patience he had left. One of those times was now.

“Hey, Amami-chan, what do you think would happen if we mixed this lithium solution with water?”

“Don’t do that,” Rantarou said, the smile on his face strained. While he didn’t know enough about chemistry to confirm what Kokichi was trying to do, the mischievous smile on his face told him it wouldn’t lead to anything good. “Why are you asking me this anyway? I took chemistry two years ago.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be asking you, but our resident scientist kind of isn’t here right now.”

Kokichi wasn’t lying about that either. Miu and Tsumugi had been gone for the past thirty minutes of class after finishing their assignment early to make copies of a worksheet for a teacher. It shouldn’t have taken even ten minutes to copy a single worksheet. Rantarou got the feeling they weren’t truly running errands for a teacher (most likely roaming the halls, based on his experiences), but tattling on his friends for something he used to do regularly was hypocritical, and he had no urge to do such a thing in the first place.

Rantarou raised an eyebrow at him. “We’re in calculus right now. What are you doing that needs chemicals?”

Kokichi rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat. “Jeez, you’re acting like Shirogane-chan right now, being a mom and all. Don’t worry about it.”

“If you try blowing up the school, I’m pushing you down the stairs.”

“Not like Iruma-chan doesn’t try doing that to me every day.”

“True,” Rantarou mused. His smile faded when he stared back down at the half-empty worksheet. The numbers and letters had converged into an unreadable text long ago. There was no hope in deciphering it as long as Miu was gone. “Do you have any clue what’s going on in class right now?”

“Of course I do! It’s just numbers.” Upon looking down at Kokichi’s blank worksheet, it was clear he was lying through his teeth.

The rest of the class appeared to be in the same state, nudging and whispering to each other for help. A few students who had completed the worksheet exchanged papers across the columns their desks had been set in to check their answers with each other. The black and red equations the teacher had scribbled on the board at the beginning of class went ignored. The classroom was calm.

And then the fire alarm rang, its shrill shrieks forcing every student to cover their ears.

“What the fuck? They didn’t announce a drill,” one of the students said, rubbing her eyes as she set her pencil down and stood up.

Kokichi gasped. “Maybe it’s not a drill this time. I heard the school failed their test from the fire department just last year.”

“... Holy shit, you’re right!”

The soft buzz of chatter that had floated in the classroom was now hysterical screams as students flooded into the hallways. The flow of traffic was a river, fast and unyielding, unlike the typical slow flow. Red and blue signs with teachers’ names printed on them stuck out in the crowd like lighthouses. Fire alarms could still be heard in the distance.

Rantarou grabbed Kokichi’s wrist and weaved through the traffic, though he didn’t fail to glare at him. “Did you really have to say that? We might get crushed from the crowd.”

Kokichi flinched at the sudden contact before picking his speed up to keep up with Rantarou. “You tall people and your speed. Can’t you slow down for once? And I was serious when I said it might not be a drill. They usually announce those a few days before.”

“It… It might not be a drill?” 

The last time the fire alarm had rung that wasn’t a drill was back in middle school when a fire broke out in the cafeteria kitchen. Those memories were fuzzy for Rantarou, but he could clearly make out the chaos amongst the middle school students in his memories. Even now, the chaos among the high school students was still present.

“I mean, the teacher looked surprised,” Kokichi said, stopping to shrug before pushing back against a student that had pushed him out of the way. His fingers curled around Rantarou’s hand like a lost child holding onto a parent. “Either way, it’s probably not a drill.”

“So you think there’s actually a fire? What about Shirogane-san and Iruma-san?”

“They’re fine. They probably made it ahead of the traffic,” Kokichi said, but the slight waver in his voice told Rantarou he was lying to himself.

Rantarou squeezed his hand and left it at that. His heart pounded as the fire alarms crescendoed.

Finally, the noise faded when they broke outside. The sun was partially covered by flat, gray clouds, and snow caked the ground. A few students stopped to scoop enough snow to make a snowball before being swallowed by the crowd.

Rantarou looked around the crowd for a head of blue or blonde hair, but there was none. Their classmates had disappeared, as well as the red sign with their teacher’s name. It was as if they had stepped into a different, unfamiliar world.

The grin on Kokichi’s face had faded long ago.  His eyes darted around the crowd of students, taking note of the few structures he could recognize. “Are we lost?”

“I mean… maybe, but we can find our way. You’re with a traveler, you know.”

“You’re not doing such a great job at that right now.”

Even with the playful tease, Rantarou could feel the bite behind the words. His grip on Kokichi’s wrist tightened. “Just stick with me. I’m sure we can—”

“There it is.”

“What?”

Kokichi took off up the stairs leading to the student parking lots, dragging Rantarou through the crowds with him. A few seconds later, the red sign with their teacher’s name became more evident amongst the sea of student, and they stayed near the student holding the sign.

Rantarou bit his lip as he looked around. “Do you think Shirogane-san and Iruma-san are safe?”

Instead of smiling and spouting another lie, Kokichi hung his head and averted his eyes, his voice dropping to a whisper that was barely audible above the chatter of the other students. “I hope so.”

“Ouma-kun! Amami-kun!”

Kokichi and Rantarou whipped around to the voice, only to see the people they had been so worried about.

Kokichi’s face split into a grin. “Hey, Shirogane-chan! Hey, stupid whore!”

“Fuck you too,” Miu said despite pulling both Kokichi and Rantarou into a hug. “You guys are fucking morons. We blew up your phones, but you still didn’t text us back.”

Rantarou smiled and reciprocated the hug, his worries melting away. “Better than leaving you on read, right?”

“Damn right.” She pulled away and stared out at the crowd of students. “Say, you think this is an actual fire? They’ve been at it for a long time.”

“It’s only been five minutes since we came out here,” Tsumugi said with a frown, “But I don’t remember hearing about any kind of drill in our meetings with the headmaster. He usually tells the student council when he’s planning one, but there’s been no word of it.”

“Teacher’s pet Shirogane-chan back at it again!” Kokichi cheered, laughing at Tsumugi’s following sigh.

Tsumugi rubbed her forehead. “Either way, it might still be a drill.”

“Fuck, is that a fire truck?” a student nearby shouted, pointing at the road in front of the school. True to their word, two fire trucks had been stationed in front of the entrance of the school with a group of firefighters speaking with the headmaster and a few other administrators.

Worried murmurs sprang amongst the students, some lamenting the loss of their belongings while others cheered at the demise of their school, though no such demise was yet obvious.

Eventually, a bell signaling students to go back to class rang, and the student body grumbled as they walked back into the building. The four slipped into the crowd and walked inside the building with them, climbing up the stairs to their math class.

“Well, that was a shit show,” Miu said, scowling and flinging a slew of curses at a student who had pushed her. “They promised fire, but I sure as hell don’t see any fucking fire.”

“I left my good fabric in the school. If there was an actual fire, I would probably cry,” Tsumugi said. She opened her mouth to continue but was interrupted by another fire alarm ringing.

Rantarou looked up and squinted at the fire alarms. “Are you kidding me? What’s going on?”

Kokichi’s eyes sparkled. “Maybe they realized the fire drill wasn’t actually a drill and rang the alarms again. We’re gonna die here, aren’t we?”

“All of you! Back to class!” a teacher shouted on top of the roaring buzz.

“Okay, nevermind.”

“I can’t believe you were called out on your lie by someone you weren’t even talking to,” Rantarou laughed as he walked back to class. “But was that a drill or not? Do you think there was an actual fire in the building?”

The other three shrugged as they settled into their corner of the math class.

Their classmates settled into their seats as well, discussing the fire alarms and asking each other about what had happened. The teacher arrived a few minutes later with her sign.

Once the door was shut, the headmaster’s voice came over the intercom. “Hello, students and staff. I just wanted to provide some clarification as to what just happened.” He paused to clear his throat. “Some of the dust particles collecting in the gym set off the nearby smoke detectors and triggered the alarms. We’re working to fix our systems with the fire department right now. Thank you for keeping calm and walking out in an orderly manner. Have a nice day.”

Miu snorted. “‘Orderly manner?’ I damn near got crushed by some of the bastards here.”

Kokichi nodded and rolled his eyes. “Come on, someone obviously pulled the fire alarm. No smoke detector is sensitive enough to be triggered by dust of all things. The fire department’s probably cursing them out right now.”

“Maybe not that last part, but it  _ did  _ seem like they were lying,” Rantarou mused. “Your fabric is safe, Shirogane-san.”

Tsumugi let out a sigh of relief, holding a hand to her heart as she leaned back in her chair. She frowned upon seeing the math worksheets on their table. “You two still haven’t finished the worksheet? Were either of you paying attention in class?”

“Do you even need to ask that?” Kokichi snorted, folding his arms behind his head and tilting his chair back. “Of course we didn’t.”

Miu rolled her eyes and grabbed both of their worksheets. “Remind me to curse both of you out later. This shit’s the easy part.”

“Says the person who can’t spell ‘environment.’”

“Fuck you.”

The two continued to bicker while Tsumugi explained the worksheet to Rantarou, who struggled not to laugh when she and Miu were scolded by the teacher for not returning with the copies. The fire alarms went forgotten as their day continued.


	2. Truth Board

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> huge thanks to tackycrows for betaing and listening to my screaming

Kokichi sighed, rubbing his eyes as he leaned back in his seat and looked away from the glaring light of his computer screen. It had been another late night of trying to teach his friends that  _ no, Miu, the message of the book isn’t that the main character is a fuckboy. _ Still, no matter how many times this process repeated, it would never get through her head.

His gaze moved to the whiteboard pinned to his wall, where three circles labeled Distrusted, Ally, and Friend were. The three cutouts of the people he spent the most time with straddled the line between the Ally and Friend circles. It looked like something akin to a conspiracy theorist’s board with all the random things he had stuck onto it, but he could never bring himself to remove any of the sticky notes or writings he had added over the years. Sentimentality? Is that what it was?

Whatever the word was for it, he didn’t care. Kokichi tugged his scarf off and looked at his bed. After deciding the bed four feet away from him was too far away, he closed his eyes, not hearing the alarmed pings on his phone as he drifted away into sleep.

 

*

 

Kokichi woke up to the sound of pounding on his door.

He jumped out of his chair, his heart pounding as he took account of his surroundings. His computer screen, while dark before, had returned to its glaring brightness when he had struck the mouse aside in his panic. The clothes pile on his chair was as messy as ever. The succulents on his windowsill remained dead. Nothing had changed besides his buzzing phone.

Kokichi, still keeping his eyes on the door, picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Cuckma, you fucking idiot, you missed all your goddamn classes!”

Kokichi cringed at the volume of the voice and groaned. “Oh, shut up, Iruma-chan. Shouldn’t you be paying attention to your classes?”

“I’m not in class.”

“What do you mean you’re not in class?”

“I’m not in class because your dumb ass couldn’t get out of bed. Tittygane, Amacunt, and I’ve been standing outside your door for like, two hours.”

“Aren’t you gonna get in trouble?”

She scoffed. “What are they gonna do, call our parents?”

The implications held a sad truth, but he supposed it was a truth nonetheless. Kokichi looked out his window, only to see three familiar figures standing outside his door. He plastered a grin on his face. “Aw, you guys really care about me that much? You skipped school just for me?”

“Actually, yes, we did.”

Kokichi froze.

“Now can you open the door and let us in?”

“No.”

“Seriously. We’ll break in if you don’t.”

He sneered. “I’d like to see you try.”

Then the door slammed open and before he could lock the door to his bedroom, three figures stepped inside.

Kokichi’s eyes widened the slightest bit but managed to keep his composure and fold his arms behind his head. “Hey, everyone! Mind telling me how you got in?”

Miu rolled her eyes and held up a set of thin metal rods between her fingers. “You’re not the only one who can lockpick, dumbass.”

“How did an idiot like you learn how to lockpick?”

“Bitch—”

“That’s besides the point,” Tsumugi said. She gestured towards the piles of papers scattered on the floor. “Your room is so messy! How do you walk around without getting a paper cut?”

“What are you, my mom?” Kokichi snorted.

“Actually, where are your parents? Why did they let you get your room into this state?”

His smile wobbled before he forced a brighter one on his face. “That’s top secret information! They’re the heads of the mafia here, you know. I can’t tell you anything.”

Rantarou ignored Tsumugi’s irritated sigh and pointed at where Kokichi didn’t want him to point the most. “Hey, what’s on that whiteboard?”

The world stopped. Tsumugi dropped the papers she had picked up, the lockpicking tools dropped out of Miu’s hands, and Kokichi’s heart jumped to his throat. Everyone turned to the whiteboard.

Kokichi hid his shaking hands behind his back. He shouldn’t have made the meaning of the whiteboard so obvious, but he had no reason to think anyone would be able to get into his room, much less the three people he least wanted to see the board. Still, he couldn’t spend much longer berating himself for his past decisions.

The smile remained on Kokichi’s face. “That’s my lie board. If I think of a lie, I’ll put it on the board.”

Miu plucked a sticky note off the board. “‘Get more eggs.’ How the hell do you lie about a command?”

“Is that a challenge?”

Before Miu could inevitably answer with a “Hell yeah!” and derail their conversation, Tsumugi spoke up. “It’s pretty clear that isn’t your lie board. If anything, it looks more like your truth board.”

Now that she mentioned it, Kokichi could see the pattern. Commands were hard, if not impossible, to twist into lies, and they were peppered all over the board. Thoughts from three AM he had thought was important at the time but never threw away were scribbled on the edges of the board. And most importantly of all, the truth of how he felt about the people in his life was right at the center of the board, visible to everyone.

Miu gasped and pointed at his computer. “What the fuck is with that shitty setup? Is that a fucking paperclip in your monitor?”

Some of the weight was taken off Kokichi’s shoulders as he shifted his attention to somewhere else. “What’s it to you, dumb bitch?”

“This is a crime against humanity.”

_ “You’re _ a crime against humanity.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Rantarou hummed as he picked another sticky note off the board. “You know, Ouma-kun, if you need more lead, you can just ask me. I have tons just sitting around.”

Tsumugi’s lips quirked up into a smile at a doodle of himself on the board. “I didn’t know you could draw in the chibi art style. Do you take requests?”

“Oh, I didn’t draw that,” Kokichi said, picking a marker up. “My mom did.”

“Do you think you can draw a little sketch of Miu? I’m just curious to see how she would turn out in a chibi style.”

Miu opened her mouth to object but shut it when the marker hit the board. “Holy shit, you can draw? When did you learn how to draw?”

“When I was in the womb,” Kokichi said without taking his eyes off the drawing. A few minutes later, he stepped back and waved jazz hands in the air. “Ta-da! There’s the ugly bitch!”

Tsumugi’s eyes sparkled. “That looks great! Can I take a picture of it?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

After a few more minutes of the three messing around his room, it became clear none of them were going to bring up the elephant in the room. Kokichi could finally breathe, but he couldn’t help but feel curious. If he was in their position, he would have interrogated himself without a doubt. Why weren’t they saying anything?

Kokichi gulped, and his voice lowered. “Are you really okay with…”

“That?” Rantarou asked, pointing at the three circles on the whiteboard. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Because…”

“I’ve seen some people in fandom arrange their meta and theories this way,” Tsumugi said, “This is helping you keep track of the truth, right? Then I don’t think any of us really have any problem with it.”

Kokichi blinked. Was it really okay? He knew keeping track of his feelings like this was unusual. There was no way all three of them could look at it and brush it off as another one of his quirks.

Miu snorted as she scribbled something above her cutout. “If this is gonna be your truth board, you’ve gotta write the complete truth on it.”

“It’s the truth board, Iruma-chan. Labeling yourself as a ‘sexy beast’ is a complete lie.”

Miu swiped her finger against the board, erasing the words with a snort. “Fine, bitch, accept the lie.”

“It’s not a lie, and you know it.”

“Okay, you two, knock it off,” Rantarou said, “Let’s just go get lunch.”

Tsumugi pulled out her phone, scrolling through a list of restaurants she had saved. “There’s a ramen shop near us. Do you want to go there?”

“That’s where  _ you _ want to go, Shirogane-san.”

“Guilty as charged. Are we going or not?”

“Sure. What about you two?”

Miu shrugged. “I’m cool with the weeb place.”

Kokichi remained silent until it processed everyone was waiting for his answer. “Yeah, sure. That’ll make Shirogane-chan the weeb happy, wouldn’t it?”

“Hey, I’m not a weeaboo!” Tsumugi said, pointing a finger at them with a scowl. “Why do you guys keep calling me that?”

“Just keep telling yourself that, Weebogane,” Miu snickered.

The four walked out of the house as Tsumugi struggled to defend herself using increasingly desperate arguments. 

Kokichi hummed, keeping a bounce in his step as they walked towards the restaurant. No one besides him had brought up the whiteboard, and it didn’t seem like they would anytime soon. Their justification didn’t seem like lies either. Something as unusual as keeping an entire board dedicated to keeping track of the truth wasn’t unusual to them.

Maybe the three of them were more interesting than he had given them credit for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed this chapter Tam:Yam! i know this probably isn't what you were expecting but i hope you enjoyed nonetheless.
> 
> if you're wondering about when the next installment will come out, i finished the first draft during camp nanowrimo and am re-outlining now. so dont worry, i havent forgotten about it ;)

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah that fire alarm thing actually happened at my school, except everyone was really calm and just bitched about the weather and my teacher was the one who called the entire thing out as someone pulling the fire alarm. i hope you enjoyed! please let me know if you have any questions


End file.
